Brandon Rios: Can He Dethrone Lightweight King Juan Manuel Marquez?

It should be clear to anyone who watched Brandon Rios grin after Anthony Peterson bashed his bag up into his ribcage, and then smile gleefully when Miguel Acosta drilled him with a right hand, that he is impervious to pain.

Soon after Rios got done knocking out Acosta after an excellent, back and forth fight, I began to think about a possible fight between Rios and the great Juan Manuel Marquez.

It would seem that Rios is perfectly made for Marquez, who has made a living recently trading with, and eventually destroying pressure style fighters.

Rios lacks elite hand speed, and his defense is relatively non-existent. That is a big problem to have when fighting a guy like Marquez, who is one of the most accurate punchers in the world.

But Marquez is already an anomaly by fighting this well at 37 years old, and he's been in some serious wars.

Stepping in with a beast like Rios might finally make him look his age. Rios can obviously take a punch as well as anybody, and he doesn't get discouraged at all, despite being a young fighter.

Now that Ring Magazine has Rios ranked as their number one contender at lightweight, it's at least possible that these two could square off at some point, especially if Marquez doesn't get his shot at Pacquiao later this year.

If Marquez can't get in the ring with Manny, a fight with Rios would be a fantastic consolation prize for fight fans.

Marquez would have to hold off Rios' attack early and hope to eventually wear him down with those accurate hooks and crosses. Rios would have to try and hurt Marquez badly early on and continue to pound away until Marquez stays down.

The problem there is that Marquez seems to have the recuperative powers of the Energizer Bunny on PCP.

The fight may never happen, but if it were to go down, it would guarantee to be an absolute scorcher, regardless of the outcome. Rios, with his style of fighting, may never be better than he is right now, and Marquez may just be primed to slide.